If you want the hybrids to be more affordable, how about some tax incentives?<br>The most popular of all hybrids is the Toyota Prius.<br>Did you know that there are no tax incentives for the Prius? The tax incentive ran out about a year ago.<br>The Toyota Highlander Hybrid costs $5000 more than the standard Hybrid.<br>How many people want to spend the extra $5000? I'll admit that if gas keeps going up $5000 extra will start looking good.<br><br>My personal answer to your question is no. I am running around in a Lexus GX470. <br>I'm 61, I've got the vehicle of my dreams and I'm going to keep it.<br>I'm like a politician. I can talk the game but I'll run around in my gas guzzler.<br><br><br><br><br>

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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

You don't have to give up your dream car. The auto makers are marketing vehicles they are not willing to produce in order to meet the demand. They should be making the hybrids affordable/more plentiful and placing a premium on the gas guzzlers, not the way they're doing it now.<br><br>

The US government has done everything in its power to kill electric cars and high-mileage gasoline engines. Several companies actually made electric cars and leased them in California. Some were actually even sold. After government restrictions on mpg emissions were lifted the companies recalled the cars and scrapped them, despite a waiting list to get one. They tried to get them all, but a few people managed to keep them. One video shows an electric car drag racing some other well-powered gasoline cars. It wins by a huge margin. A guy put a solar cell rig on top of his car, and he basically travels for free. <br><br>We've passed up some amazing technology. People who tried to defy the oil-monopoly were ridiculed, defamed, and found that they could get no manufacturing partners or financial partners. Some who refused to stop their research or sell it to the oil companies were killed. <br><br>In 1980 I bought a Datsun 310 GX. It got 40 mpg on the highway. I drove it to Canada 3 times, drove it over the tallest mountain passes, drove it all over the US and Canadian Rockies, across deserts, and basically everywhere. Travel was cheap. I figured we were on the brink of major improvements, and that soon every car would be getting good mileage. I was wrong. Those cars were forgotten. <br><br>Now, "great mileage" means 30 mpg. "Good mileage" means 24 to 26 mph. Average is more like 18 to 22. There is no excuse for that. But the most amazing thing of all is the hybrids. People tout hybrids as the answer to the problems. The best hybrids get around 36 mpg. That was my Datsun 310 on a bad day in the city. I got as much as 44 mpg on my trips. <br><br>Bush killed the high-mileage car program (it was a government sponsored contest) almost the day he walked into office back in 2001. Our entire nation -- if not the world -- seems enslaved to these oil giants. I used to think that it was just conspiracy talk when I heard about the oil companies buying up patents and killing off competition. Now I know it to be true. Take for instance that great electric car I mentioned up above. There's one problem to building one now: they require a certain kind of battery usually found in laptop computers. A huge oil company owns the patent to those batteries (bought it) and they have forbidden its use in vehicles. It cannot be used in electric cars anymore. <br><br>And that's just one case. There are thousands. <br><br>We are slaves to big-oil. There is simply no other way to describe it.<br><br>Shooshie<br><br><br><br><br>[color:green]Pictures and things</font color=green>

Electric cars aren't any cleaner than a gas engine, in fact if your local power station is coal powered they're worse for the environment than your typical small car gas engine. While there's no junk coming out of a tailpipe on an electric car, you need to take into account the source of the electricity that you're using. Truth is most people get their electricity from coal and gas.<br><br>I used to think it was terrible that life was unfair. Then I thought what if life were fair and all of the terrible things that happen came because we really deserved them? Now I take comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe.

_________________________I used to think it was terrible that life was unfair. Then I thought what if life were fair and all of the terrible things that happen came because we really deserved them? Now I take comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe.

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